Occasionally Jayden and Tam would hunt together, making the group stop as they captured rabbits. It turns out Jayden can harden the air into some sort of hand. He’d grab the rabbit in his air-hand while the rabbit is unaware and then Tam would walk over and touch it, causing it to fall asleep. The other two behind Valeria would hold the sleeping rabbits in their arms as we walked. I wonder how long that deep sleep would last uninterrupted.
After a while, the terrain changed a bit. It switched from a sort of sparse forest to a denser, greener one with deciduous and evergreen trees mixed together. It got cooler too, and darker from the shade. Tam and Jayden stopped hunting, so I walked behind them without paying much attention. But I didn’t want to get lost in dark thoughts. So instead I spent the rest of the walk imagining life without my gift. Just me and Ron on the run. Free.
I’m jolted out of my daydream when I bump into Tam.
“Watch it!” he says.
“Sorry,” I mumble.
We stop but we’re still in the middle of the forest. Valeria goes to a tall tree that looks pretty much like all the others and knocks five times. One, two. Pause. Three. Pause. Four, five.
“Let’s go in,” she says, walking past the tree.
“In where?” I ask.
“Just come on,” Jayden says.
Once we’re all past the tree, she knocks on it again in the same manner. As soon as she finishes, the others visibly relax.
“What just happened?” I ask.
Valeria smiles. “We made it. Camp Amaryllis. It’s a pocket universe, maintained by one of our elders, June. The camp is a bit further in the forest, another hour’s walk. You know, for safety.”
She starts walking again but this time instead of falling in line, the others separate into little groups—Tam and Jayden one group and those two others whose names I still don’t know in another, still carrying the rabbits. They’re talking so much louder now. Just me and Valeria are alone, so I speed up to catch up to her.
“A pocket universe?” I say. “That’s possible?”
She shrugs. “Everything seems to be possible with gifts. It’s safe in here, but every time someone goes in and out, it puts the whole camp in danger. This pocket universe is technically still a part of the greater universe, in the same exact spot. But right now, we’re separated, like a half step up, so if someone were to go to the camp’s location now, it’d just be the normal forest. But in order to get in or out, it has to completely re-merge with the greater universe, meaning anyone near the perimeter can enter. That’s why the camp is built inside so far.”
“Ah, okay,” I say, my brain still not really wrapping around the idea.
Valeria chuckles. “It’s fine. You don’t have to understand how it works. You just have to understand how to use it.”
I nod. We continue walking, neither of us saying anything. After half an hour or so, I start to feel giddy. I can feel the tingles on the back of my neck intensify fivefold. We’re close.
Then, I start to feel nervous. What if it’s like Ron said—just a rumor?
I glance at Valeria, who’s trudging along, eyes dead set in front of her, hands holding the straps of her pack by her shoulders.
“So, Valeria,” I say. “I heard that… at camp, there’s, uh, someone…”
“Someone who can erase gifts?”
“Yeah. Is that true?”
“Yes. Li can. Is that what you want?”
“Of course.”
“Then I’ll take you straight to her when we get back. I need to report to her that you’ve joined us anyway.”
“Okay, thanks.” My heart feels like it’s jumping up and down in excitement. It really is true. I can have my gift erased.
A large building made of dark logs comes into view. And then noise. The flow of water, moving, yelling, chatter, life. The others start walking faster now, going past the building. Once past the building, the space opens up to a huge circular clearing with small cabins clustered on the far side and a huge white building on the edge near those. The center is a big, open space. Some kids are sitting down on the grass eating. Others are running around playing various games.
Valeria leads me to the side of the building where there’s a small porch and a wooden door. We step into a lounge type of area with couches and tables, but no one is in here. The ceiling is low and there is just one small window. The rest of the inside where the light from the window doesn’t reach is lit only with candlelight. It feels kind of homey, but also kind of eerie.
We walk down a hallway and stop at the door at the end. Valeria knocks.
“Come in,” a muffled woman’s voice calls from behind.
Valeria opens the door and gestures for me to go in, so I do. She follows behind me. The office is small. Or perhaps it’s actually big, but it just looks small because it’s crowded with thick books stacked on ceiling-high bookshelves. If there is a window in here, it’s obscured by one of the shelves. The rest of the room is taken up by a large desk with four monitors and even more books stacked on it, filling in the spaces around the monitors.
An East Asian woman with lightly tanned skin stands up, head barely visible above the monitors. Her head has a dark stubble on it, fresh growth on a once-bald head. She smiles, revealing a wide gap between two of her front teeth. She has the kind of genuine smile that makes her whole wide, squarish face stretch and crinkle.
“Valeria!” She steps out from behind the desk to greet us. She’s short and a little stout, wearing a white tank top and pale
